Psalm 119:96 I have seen an end of all perfection: but your commandment is exceeding broad. I. THE IMPERFECTION THAT IS ASCRIBED TO ALL CREATED OBJECTS. 1. Everything pertaining to the present world, its riches, honours, and enjoyments so earnestly coveted by carnal minds, will be found greatly deficient in their promised good when weighed in a just and equal balance. Experience proves them incapable of affording satisfaction; they first allure, and then deceive, and raise our expectations only for the purpose of producing disappointment. 2. There is nothing perfect in the Church of God, collectively considered, though it is composed of the excellent of the earth, in all ages and parts of the world. The tares and the wheat grow together until harvest. 3. The same imperfection which marks the general body attaches to the character of individual believers in various degrees; for as is the root, so are the branches. 4. As the psalmist had seen an end of all perfection in others, so also in himself; and this is what the best of men have seen in their own characters as well as he. There is neither intellectual nor moral perfection to be found on earth. II. THE PERFECTION THAT IS ASCRIBED TO THE DIVINE LAW. 1. It includes the whole of our duty towards God, ourselves, and our neighbour. 2. It extends to all persons and to characters of every description. 3. Its dominion reaches to the inward 'as well as to the outward man, the heart as well as the life. It rules over the understanding, for obedience is founded in knowledge; the will, which must be bowed to the will of God; the affections, which are required to be set supremely on Him. 4. It comprehends the manner of our obedience, as well as the matter of it, and shows that nothing can be acceptable but what proceeds from a right principle. Love is the fulfilling of the law, both as to its spirit and design. 5. Its authority is perpetual, reaching forward to eternity. It is a perfect transcript of the Divine mind, and is necessarily as unchangeable as its great original (Psalm 119:89, 152). 6. It is exceeding broad with respect to its sanctions, or the rewards which it promises and the punishments it inflicts. (B. Beddoms, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.WEB: I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commands are boundless. MEM |
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